The game was made for Kokoromi's Gamma256 event, were designers were asked to design games with one requisite : Using 256 pixels for the games visual, whatever the shape of the "screen" might look like.

Passage is the first game a played of the bunch and I want to share with you all. It's a game about life, there ain't no real goal and you can earn points. I won't spoil the game anymore, just try it and tell us what it make you feel!

For me

in the end I felt sooo sad thinking back at everything I did during this short short life. And that feeling when you realize how the game is going to end...like shivers down my spine.

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING

Phil's right. Shut up about games as art, and shut up complaining about people pushing games as art.

The Passage is a gorgeous. The ambiguous purpose of the treasure chests, the slow change in perspective from only being able to look to the future to only being able to look to the past, the ability to spend that time with someone you care about... it's beautiful.

Member

The game's observations are probably pedestrian by the standards of other artforms -- "The future is hazy.....companions can slow you down....treasures you accumulate mean nothing at death".

If the woman only contributes to score and the score is meaningless, then what exactly does that say about marriage or women? Not what the creator intends, I don't think. To have her only as a multiplier for score shows that she is little more than a status object and a burden.

The woman should probably enhance gameplay as much as she detracts from it (especially considering what a hassle it is to have her around).

The way the game portrays these ideas is fairly novel. However the game itself is banal outside of the spouse. I'm not really sure what this says about games as art when the most interesting aspect is the concept and graphic presentation and not the gameplay.

The old adage "art is in the eye of the beholder" is very true. The creator of something calling it "art" doesn't make it so. The viewer is the one who determines whether something is "art".

The creator of something telling everyone "THIS IS ART DAMMIT!" serves no purpose other than to drive people to the opposite conclusion. The viewer will tend to think "well, the artistic merits of this thing must not be very strong if the creator has to TELL me it is art".

I can see the artistic merit in games, but I make the judgement of whether it is art myself. Others do not have to view them the same way and forcing it on them is pointless.

Member

Banned

Err, I definitely get the whole profound message and all, but I didn't really find it that moving or life-changing as everyone seems to think it is, not only here but on most sites as well. Kind of an overreaction... thanks for the link nonetheless.

Member

Any thread in Gaming Discussion which happens to contain the word art in the title is put in a pretty damn precarious position. All we need now is for Sapiens to show up with his "no lol" routine and we're finished.

I can't try out the game yet, got to wait until I get home, but it certainly sounds like an interesting little experiment. Which is probably what I should be working on, rather than big, vague, ambitious design docs that I've got no chance in hell of ever implementing.

Member

It's an interesting idea and makes a good statement, but as a game it really fails. There is nothing interesting to do besides keep walking and if your going to make a statement about life with a game, there should probably be some form of interacting with NPCs.

Member

1: The game is boring.
2: Games are not art.
3: Since this topic has been done to death, bury it already.
4: The game sucks.
5: I would ask for my 5 minutes back but since I played this 'game' with my toes while I was actually focusing on making my new characters not suck in Etrian Odyssey (which has more emotional impact than this game btw), you're off the hook for now.
6: Buy Etrian Odyssey you assholes!

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING

1: The game is boring.
2: Games are not art.
3: Since this topic has been done to death, bury it already.
4: The game sucks.
5: I would ask for my 5 minutes back but since I played this 'game' with my toes while I was actually focusing on making my new characters not suck in Etrian Odyssey (which has more emotional impact than this game btw), you're off the hook for now.
6: Buy Etrian Odyssey you assholes!

Banned

Funny, I think this perfectly illustrates why games can't be art (according to Ebert's definition of art at least). If this is 'games as art,' but we had to remove all interesting forms of interaction with it to elevate it to art, then what the hell is the point?